She then turned the page and mentioned a warning.
He’d heard his aunt warn Petra to be careful in her spellcasting as they may not bring the result she intended. He had thought Lady Antonia was more sensible. Though, in truth, he did not know her nearly as well as he wished to.
Lady Antonia then tilted her head back and looked up to the sky. The others said nothing.
What had really happened here tonight?
“As we did not find the answers we sought, we will try something new tomorrow,” Petra announced as she came to her feet.
Lady Samantha waved a hand and the flames of all but one candle were extinguished while the others started gathering crystals.
Amcaster thought they’d been doing a new moon ritual, but Philip wondered if it wasn’t something far more dangerous.
“We have clarity, and our intentions are known,” Maia announced. “With them released during the new moon, then they cannot help but be realized.”
“I certainly hope you are correct,” Antonia said, though sadness lingered in her tone.
What had she hoped to gain? Philip wanted to ask but knew that his cousins would not appreciate that he had followed and not made his presence known.
“We will find your answers, Antonia,” Petra stated. “We will find a way to make your gift easier to carry.”
Philip frowned. What was so difficult about her magical gift?
Petra picked up the lone, bright candle and led the other three from the center. Philip retreated down another path and hid in the darkness until they were gone.
He didn’t even know what Lady Antonia’s magical gift was, but he intended to find out.
Antonia woke with a weight of concern.
Why had she started to recite the werewolf spell without reading it first?
It had been careless, but at least she had not completed it. In order for the spell to work, she would have had to read it three times under the new moon, and she had only read it once. Also, there were no non-magical men about to be affected. Therefore, she was worried for no reason. Except, there had been more words on the page, but she’d not been able to make them out because it had been too dark. She’d even tried reading them once she returned to her chamber, with a candle placed near the page, but they were too faded from age.
Hopefully they were not important. Not that it mattered. Antonia could think of no reason why she would ever cast a spell to turn a man into a werewolf, nor could she understand why there was one written to begin with.
After she dressed for the day, determined to find the answers she sought, Antonia joined the others in the breakfast room. She then filled her plate and found a seat beside Petra and thought back on her conversation with the wolf. What was the danger in a temporary spell?
And why was it so much easier to converse with animals than humans?
Viscount Chedworth entered and after filling his plate, took a seat at the table directly across from her. He’d never done so before. Whenever they’d dined together, he’d seated himself much further away from her. Though, she was happy he was so close this morning for she needed his calm.
He was such a handsome man, and his energy was happy, or joyful. He liked to laugh, and she had peace in his presence. A balm to the nervous excitement, anxiety, and worry that often assailed her when at large gatherings in London. He was the calmest person she had ever met, and she envied that about him, and wished others would express it as well, which would make life for her in London much more pleasant.
However, as they were at the breakfast table, and there was no anxiety in the room, she put her attention to the food before her, and let the others converse.
“Lady Antonia, I have not had the opportunity to speak with you since London and hoped that you would stroll with me following breakfast.”
Antonia looked up into Chedworth’s nearly cobalt eyes and suddenly lost her words, and possibly thoughts. Why did he suddenly make her nervous?
Oh, he always made her nervous, but she’d overcome her tangled tongue when they strolled in Hyde Park, so why would the wretched shyness that had been with her since birth suddenly emerge.
He had practically ignored her since her arrival, and Antonia assumed he wanted nothing to do with her, especially after what he’d told her in London. Why did he wish to speak with her now?
“I… am…um… very well,” she found herself saying as she glanced back down at her plate of food.
While he ate, she sipped her tea and hardly touched anything else on her plate. Her stomach was closed off and tight. Whatever appetite she had when she had entered the breakfast room fled with his first question.
Antonia tried to pay attention to the other conversations occurring around the table, but even if she did hear, she was not listening because her mind was too full of worry. Or perhaps it was merely curiosity. It certainly was not hope because that was something she could not allow to enter her heart or mind.
